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Researchers reviewed the link between childhood obesity and lifetime depression in 889 subjects through a population survey that examined age, genes and environment susceptibility from 2002 to 2006.

Additionally, the team incorporated data from an older study that monitored participants living in Iceland in 1967 and born between 1907 and 1935. Any link between subjects who were obese during childhood and suffered from depression as adults was recorded.

Age played a major role - adults who were obese at 8-years-old or 13-years-old were four times more likely to experience depression as adults.

“Given the rise in adolescents’ obesity and greater influence of social media on body image, understanding the associations between childhood obesity and depression is critical,” the study concludes.